Sunrise over the Atlantic – Click image to enlarge
I just got back from a family vacation in Hilton Head Island, SC. We had a fantastic time, and no one wanted to go home when it was time to leave….that’s a good sign that everyone had a great time, and we’re already making plans to go back again! Of course, I took all of my camera gear, but I didn’t spend as much time shooting as I usually do. Photography wasn’t the priority on this trip, but I definitely did “some” shooting. Our rental house was just a short walk from the beach so I got up early every morning to photograph the sunrise. I was amazed at how many people were out on the beach walking and running at 5:50 AM! When I thought about it, I wasn’t all that surprised since its cooler then and very quiet and peaceful.
Unfortunately Mother Nature didn’t completely cooperate with me for good sunrise photography….it rained on me twice and even though I stayed out there I didn’t get any breaks in the clouds, and two other days there were heavy clouds on the horizon again without any breaks in the clouds. As all of us photographers know, if you aren’t “out there” you aren’t going to get the shot so I was persistent and kept going out every morning and I did get two nice mornings to shoot before the week was over. The image above was taken the first morning we were on the island which also happened to coincide with low tide. This situation provided a great opportunity to get some interesting reflections and I took advantage of it. In this image I positioned the camera very low, just above the sand, and captured a reflection of the rising sun in a tide pool along with a nice foreground of many little reflections off the rippled wet sand. I really like this shot! For the image below, I set up the camera at the bottom of a sand dune so I could include the pattern of the vines growing in the sand and exaggerate the height of the dune, and position the fence and sky at the top of the frame.
Sunrise (and sunset) is a great time to shoot, but you have to work fast since the wonderful golden color from the low angle of the sun doesn’t last long.
Sunrise on Hilton Head Island – Click image to enlarge
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